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Monday, April 15, 2013

"The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Solutions For Kids From Birth to 5 Years" Book Review!

When my son Matthew was a baby, we purchased "The Happiest Baby on the Block" written by Dr. Karp. We read it, along with a few other books, and we finally felt comfortable enough to start putting Matthew in his own bed, in his crib, in his room, and out of ours. We used a white noise maker with a waterfall sound, and it worked!

The book should have been named "The Happiest Parents on the Block!" This book helped us to transition Matthew out of our bedroom slowly, and into his own bed without hardly any issues at all. All three of my children love their Mama. Even now, my nine month old Hailey is a Mama's girl. She isn't even happy when Daddy is holding her anymore, unless he's holding her and walking around the house with her. Even at nine months old, she knows how to make her daddy walk around and keep her happy. As other parents would say "she has him wrapped around her little finger," and yes, she does!

When Hailey was a newborn, she would sleep for four or more hours in her own bed before waking up to nurse, and then she would go right back to sleep. Then she started sleeping from 9:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. every morning, then she'd nurse, and go back to sleep for a few more hours. We thought we had the best baby ever! As our other two children never slept through the night between two and five months old! But then, teething started, and so did our sleepless nights. Since around five months old, Hailey has started waking up anywhere from one to three hours, wanting me to nurse her back to sleep. I am not going to deprive her of that, because every time that I have thought of stopping, she has gotten sick, or one of our other children get sick, and then when I get up with one of our other children, it seems to wake up Hailey. So for us right now, it's a never-ending cycle.

Hailey just recently started sitting up on her own and rolling around on the floor. She started holding her head up though from the day she was born, grabbing onto toys and checking them out at three months old, and she has been grabbing onto and trying to eat real food since she was five months old. So for us, she's a late bloomer, compared to her siblings.

We are currently room sharing with her. Matthew was out of our room at six and a half months old. Chloe was eight months old, but her bedroom, which is now my husband's office, was right next to our bedroom. Hailey is now nine and a half months old, and still sleeping in our room. She has really bead allergies and she wakes up in the middle of the night coughing and spitting up or throwing up mucus, and sometimes more. So we still aren't ready to get her upstairs into her crib yet. I was going to try, the next night I get some more sleep, putting her upstairs in her crib for naps. This should make it easier after a few days or so of her having her naps in her crib, to have her sleep there at night. But then the issue is her waking up Chloe, because they will be sharing the same room. For us, this is super tough, because we honestly don't know what to do. Chloe is a light sleeper, and right now, Matthew is going to school. So we can't just put her in his room. So we are currently just trying to decide what to do, and how to do it.

The "The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Solutions For Kids From Birth to 5 Years" says to give your baby a lovey. Hailey loves Taggie blankies! She sleeps with one at night, and we keep one in the car for her when we are out and about, and we wash them every week or two. Both Matthew and Chloe thrived on schedules. But with Matthew in school, Chloe going to speech class, and me having some Mommy play dates (with our kids too of course), it's really hard to keep a schedule. So I make sure that when I am home, she gets a morning nap, and an afternoon nap around 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. when I get home from picking my son up from school. Next year, he is taking the bus home, since the school is literally right up the road. We will try this in the beginning and see what time he gets home from school. If he is the last one off of the bus, or doesn't get home with in 15 to 20 minutes after getting out of school, then I guess that I will have to go pick him up, which I am truly dreading the pick up line. Parents get there around 1:40 p.m. to start lining up to pick up their children at 2:15 p.m. or so. So schedules don't work much for us. Other than I try to put Hailey to bed between seven and eight o'clock, just depending on how late of a nap she took.

The book says to let Chloe sleep in our bedroom or the living room while we sleep train our baby. Then with Chloe, we would have trouble getting her back into her bed, because she would go to bed crying after we got Hailey set up and sleeping in her crib. Then Chloe would wake up Hailey, and everything would begin again. I don't know how other parents do it! I don't know how my parents did it.

"The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Solutions For Kids From Birth to 5 Years" is a great book for all parents and grandparents trying to get their little ones to sleep on their own, and to try to stop them from waking up several times every night. It also has information for parents about the 1 to 5 years old's, which I haven't read yet, but I can't wait! Chloe wakes up at the crack of dawn, usually before the sun comes up, so around 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., even on the weekends.

Below is some information about Dr. Karp and the book: (not written by me nor my opinions)

Sleep. It's a parent's most coveted yet most infringed upon asset. There's never enough of it and you can't store it up for later. And just when you think you've reached the fabled "sleep through the night" phase, your baby decides to start waking up again!

Wouldn't be helpful if there was a book about this to help you and your child get the rest you both need? Well now there is! "The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to Five Years" solves the #1 problem plaguing parents: exhaustion.

About Dr. Harvey Karp:
Harvey Karp, M.D., is a nationally celebrated pediatrician, child development specialist, and children's environmental health advocate. He is on the faculty of the USC School of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Karp's books and DVDs, The Happiest Baby on the Block, The Happiest Toddler on the Block, and The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep, teach parents breakthrough techniques to reduce infant crying, boost sleep, build toddler patience, and stop tantrums. Millions of parents have benefited from his advice, including celebrities such as Madonna, Michelle Pfeiffer, Larry David, Jewel, and Pierce Brosnan. Translated into more than twenty languages and taught across America by thousands of Happiest Baby educators, the enormous popularity of Dr. Karp's work has made him one of the most read—and most trusted—pediatricians in history.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the One2One Network. No other compensation was exchanged or received. Most of the above opinions are my own, unless otherwise stated.